Eagles take charge, roll

Conor O'Neill / Times-News

Saturday

Oct 27, 2012 at 12:01 AMOct 27, 2012 at 1:53 AM

All it took was one play for the Eastern Alamance offense.

Suffocated by the Williams High School defense for most of the first quarter, quarterback Josh Long connected on a long pass to Aaron Clay on a flea flicker for the last play of a scoreless first quarter.

That proved to be the spark the Eagles needed to roll off five straight touchdowns across 2˝ quarters en route to a 35-8 victory against Williams in the final game of the regular season Friday night at Burlington Memorial Stadium.

“I guess we just needed that one play to get us all going,” said Clay, who finished with five receptions for 70 yards. “I think that boosted us for the rest of the game.”

Coach John Kirby’s faith in his offense never wavered, and was rewarded when Long carried for 7 yards.

“I think the key to our offense (Friday night) was the … fourth-and-1,” Kirby said. “We hadn’t really stopped them and we weren’t moving the ball. I really had faith in our offense that we could pick up that first down, and we did.”

Eastern Alamance’s Josh Jurgevich finished that drive less than a minute into the second quarter with a 2-yard touchdown run, his first of three touchdowns in the game. He added a 5-yard touchdown run and a 30-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter.

Fifth-place Williams chewed up more than half of the first quarter with the opening drive of the game, but came away with nothing to show for it. Jaylin Jeffries fumbled inside the 10-yard line and Eastern Alamance’s Logan Robinson recovered the fumble in the end zone.

It was one of three turnovers for the Bulldogs (7-4, 3-4), and it came on the 15th play of the drive.

“They played a lot better than we did. We drove the ball down here to start the game, turned it over instead of punching it in,” Williams coach David Green said, trailing off.

Jeffries’ gaffe didn’t seem to affect him for the rest of the game, as he rolled up 136 rushing yards and a 5-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

But Williams’ defense was unable to slow down Eastern Alamance.

“It was more of us shooting ourselves in the foot,” Williams senior linebacker Isaiah Alston said. “But we still tried to play hard. Nobody gave up, we just weren’t getting the plays we needed.”

In addition to throwing touchdowns of 30 and 5 yards, Long also ran for a 7-yard touchdown with 9:46 left in the fourth quarter to give Eastern Alamance a 35-0 lead. His two touchdown passes pushed his season total to 30, with each strike setting a single-season record for touchdown passes.

“Thanks to my receivers,” the humble senior signal-caller said when asked about his touchdown total.

Clay also had an interception at the end of the first half.

Williams quarterback Christian Miles was taken to Alamance Regional Medical Center because of a hit he suffered in the fourth quarter. Green said it was a “probable concussion” but that Miles was alert and it was mostly a precautionary measure to take him to the hospital.

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